Makedonas

So it looks like our sailing team will go down from 8 members in Tokyo to 4 in Paris. It seems bad, but actually is not so bad when you look at it. 470 became mixed, so instead of 4 sailors we only had the chance to qualify 2, which we did (so -2 overall) RS:X became iQFoil and we still got the men's quota but not women's, after the change of categories (-3 overall) Karachaliou in ILCA 6 had a lot of drama with our sailing federation and got the quota for Portugal but won't be going to Paris regardless it seems (-4 overall) The finn is no longer an Olympic category which caused Mitakis to retire after three consecutive Olympic qualifications (-5 overall) Maramenidis got the quota in men's kite, which is +1 for us (-4 overall) Our sailing federation is lucky they can use the above as excuses for the small amount of quotas even if it still is a low point for Greek sailing. Also I sort of thought the Mixed Nacra team would have a good chance (I think they missed out by 1 spot for Tokyo but don't quote me on that, it was definitely close), especially with Papadopoulou being a bit older/more experienced now, but they still missed out by a few spots. The biggest missed opportunities though were definitely ILCA 6 (Karachaliou leaving us), and ILCA 7 (multiple good young prospects who came close but no one took a quota). Also if you include Tsortanidis instead of Kokkalanis, we have all 4 of our quota athletes being in their early 20s, so I'm optimistic that Greek sailing can rise again.

Finally we got quotas in sailing! We were in danger of missing out for the first time since 1936, after we had 8 sailors in Tokyo. Now we have 2 confirmed here, and should get another 2 in the 470 mixed. I'm happy for Maramenidis to make his Olympic debut. I'm glad we got the quota in iQFoil and Kokkalanis will go to the Olympics for the 4th time, though I am sad for Tsortanidis who I wanted to see take the quota, he is from a small island and it would've been nice to see him go to the Olympics from there, also Kokkalanis is old and had his chances for a medal in the past and didn't take them. Of course Tsortanidis also finished this regatta in a qualifying position but there's only one quota per nation. It's too bad that he has to miss out when there are other boat classes where we did not qualify anyone. And the 470 quota with Spanaki/Spanaki looks 99% confirmed. I'm happy for Spanaki, she proved her critics (aka me ) wrong after accusing her of stealing the Tokyo quota from a more deserving team (she came out of nowhere and got a 2004 Olympic gold medalist out of retirement and together they won our internal regatta over Bozi/Klonaridou who were our only competitive 470 duo from Rio 2016 until a few months before Tokyo). Also it's a shame Papadakos is 5th in the ILCA 7 and will miss Paris, after our sailing federation messed up and prevented him from getting the quota a few months ago. He is young so hopefully he can make it to LA and/or Brisbane instead.

Maria Kyridou (rowing) She didn't qualify yet, but was 5th in the women's pair in Tokyo as a 20 yo, and was planning on going to the final qualification regatta in the women's double sculls with her sister Anneta (who competed in the single scull in Tokyo). Unfortunately, Maria has a foot injury and just got surgery earlier this week. Meanwhile, Anneta since last month started training again for the single sculls while her sister has been injured.

Well things are somewhat looking better now, as Kokkalanis (and Tsortanidis although in the same event so we can only have one make it to Paris), and Spanaki/Spanakis are now in qualifying positions, in addition to Maramenidis. Really a shame we will probably miss out on the ILCA 7 quota after Papadakos won it in February at the qualification regatta we hosted, when our federation decided to hold an extra race (despite it not being necessary) and he ended up losing the quota in that last race. Also I'm not sure why Papadimitriou isn't competing here as I thought he was our best sailor in this class but generally his results were poor lately compared to Panagiotidis and Papadakos. Women's iQFoil is very disappointing but not surprising. The girls really struggled to transition from RS:X, and I really thought Divari would do better considering she qualified for Tokyo as a 20 yo. Men's 49er is disappointing too. Kagialis will miss the Olympics for the first time since London, and at his age this is probably the end for him. And ILCA 6, no words really on the Karachaliou situation, but it seems like she won't be able to compete for Portugal either.

What an absolute JOKE that we are not sending our women's 4x100 team! I really thought they had a chance of making it to the Olympics, especially given how well a few of the young girls did in the indoor season. It seems pretty clear that our SB from last year will be easily surpassed this year as long as we have no major injuries. And regardless they should've gone, it would've been a good experience for the girls and in 2028 we should have an even better chance of qualifying...

Entries for the European qualifier: https://worldrowing.com/event/2024-world-rowing-european-olympic-and-paralympic-qualification-regatta/

So far a disaster for us with Maramenidis being the only one in a qualifying place right now, though Papadakos, Panagiotidis, Kokkalanis, Papadopoulou/Paschalidis, Spanaki/Spanakis are all currently very close...

I know there were some efforts to bring diaspora Greeks together but I'm not sure what happened. I haven't heard about this in about 10 years. There were always some players with Greek origins in the NHL. I just did some research and there still are: 23 yo Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks, born in New York to Greek parents 29 yo Andreas Athanasiou of the Chicago Blackhawks, born in Toronto to a Greek father and Guyanese mother There's also Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who is a very successful player and already played for Canada so would not be eligible for Greece. However, his family does not even identify as Greek despite his surname and his father's side being from Florina (border town of and , the town has a complicated history from the Greek Civil War which I will not bore you with). Anyways I'm sure there are more Greeks from USA and Canada in lower levels of hockey who would be willing to play for the national team if needed. Hopefully an effort is made so we can be competitive.

How is this possible? Is it still unknown what happens with Karachaliou's quota, as Greece hasn't "agreed" to let her represent Portugal?

Wow, I was really expecting Filtisakou/Papamichail to take a quota here. Disappointing, though both should still get in via ranking for the individual events...

Sad for PAOK, but great for Olympiacos to advance! Especially great to do it against a horrible person like Dzeko

2024 European Youth Boxing Championships: GOLD: Panagiota Kouzilou (Women's -57 kg) SILVER: Ourania Kantzari (Women's -54 kg) BRONZE: Anna-Maria Trifylli (Women's -48 kg) Maria Georgopoulou (Women's -50 kg)

2024 Billie Jean King Cup Europe/Africa Group I: Greece 2 - 1 Sweden Despina Papamichail GRE d. Kajsa Rinaldo Persson SWE 6-4 6-4 Caijsa Wilda Hennemann SWE d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE 6-4 3-6 6-4 Valentini Grammatikopoulou/Despina Papamichail GRE d. Caijsa Wilda Hennemann/Kajsa Rinaldo Persson SWE 6-4 7-5 Greece 1-2 Serbia Aleksandra Krunic SRB d. Despina Papamichail GRE 6-0 6-3 Mia Ristic SRB d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE 2-6 6-4 6-1 Despina Papamichail/Maria Sakkari GRE d. Elena Milovanovic/Lola Radivojevic SRB 4-6 6-3 10-8 Greece 3-0 Norway Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE d. Emily Sartz-Lunde NOR 6-3 2-6 6-4 Maria Sakkari GRE d. Malene Helgo NOR 7-5 6-0 Martha Matoula/Despina Papamichail GRE d. Matylda Burylo/Emily Sartz-Lunde NOR 6-0 6-4 Greece 3-0 Latvia Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE d. Daniela Vismane LAT 6-0 7-5 Maria Sakkari GRE d. Darja Semenistaja LAT 6-0 7-5 Martha Matoula/Despina Papamichail GRE d. Adelina Lachinova/Jelena Ostapenko LAT 6-4 3-6 10-8 Greece 1-2 Denmark Johanne Christine Svendsen DEN d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE 7-6(4) 4-6 6-3 Clara Tauson DEN d. Maria Sakkari GRE 6-4 6-4 Despina Papamichail/Maria Sakkari GRE d. Laura Brunkel/Rebecca Munk Mortensen DEN 6-1 6-1

To be honest I don't think it is fair to say this and put the asterisk, though Italian fans crying on social media are trying their best to tell us Tsitsipas didn't deserve to win (as if Sinner hasn't won anything lately and this was his only chance). There was also a point early in the third set where the umpire made a big mistake against Tsitsipas which resulted in him getting broken in the first place. Also Sinner could've stopped the point to have the umpire check the mark (I understand it is a risk for him but he had the option) while Tsitsipas did not have the option in the point where he was robbed (linesperson erroneously called Sinner's shot out while Tsitsipas was hitting the ball, which went out, and the umpire said it was after Tsitsipas hit it when the replay clearly shows it was before). Also at the end of the day Sinner still wasted a 4-2 lead and lost 4 games in a row to lose 4-6, and as you said he was cramping, it's not Tsitsipas' fault that Sinner struggled with the conditions, and Tsitsipas has a very good record against Sinner in the past, especially on slow courts like this one.

Disappointing week for Greece in Europe Group I, finished second in our group (beat Sweden 2-1 and Norway 3-0 but lost 2-1 to Serbia where Sakkari only played doubles...), then advanced to the next group where we needed to beat Latvia and Denmark to get promoted. Got the job done 3-0 against Latvia (Ostapenko only played doubles), and then lost 2-1 to Denmark (without Wozniacki). Pretty disappointing in the end. Tauson played an incredible match to beat Sakkari, and Grammatikopoulou lost to Svendsen who is ranked in the 500s. I am not sure why Papamichail didn't play in such an important match instead of Grammatikopoulou who was mediocre all week, and also Papamichail is more stable but congrats to the Danish girls for pulling off big upsets in both singles matches @Wumo@Agger

Maria Hopefully she can qualify next month, but now she's had 4 quota matches and lost all of them (2023 World Championships semifinal, then bronze match, then Olympic quota match, now semifinal here...). She is 31 yo and planning to retire in Paris, which would be her 4th Olympics, hopefully she can make it there Of course she will be a big favourite for one of the last quotas, and also we don't know what will happen with RUS and BLR who each have a quota in her category already...

Fencing (1) Theodora Gkountoura (women's sabre)

Yes but in those sports there is always only 1 athlete per NOC, whereas in fencing you can either have 1 or have 3, but you can't have 2. So it's not the same situation. Well, Georgiadou seems to have gotten a lot of attention with her post, maybe it'll be like our women's water polo team's NQ in 2012 as 2011 World Championships which caused a change in the qualification system for the future of course it's a shame they always seem to come at Greece's expense though

Thanks @hckošice, weren't the 2020 ones played without fans though?

Now that you mention it there are probably a few other examples in sports like wrestling, judo, etc. where only 1 athlete per NOC is allowed no matter what (unlike fencing where you can either have 1 or 3 but not 2...)

Also last thing I will say for now (sorry for spamming this topic) is that a fencing medal could really change the sport in Greece and bring more attention and sponsors, so that makes it frustrating that we have two serious medal contenders but only one can compete. @phelps gave the great example of Italy in 2016 and that is pretty insane, and I don't want to "play the victim" but for us it means so much more in a way because fencing is so irrelevant in our country, and it feels like we are being denied the chance to make it relevant, while Italian fencing for example is so strong and historic that for them to experience this too is just such a different scenario. In Tokyo we had high expectations for Gkountoura and she crashed out in the first round, hopefully she can do better here...

Also so many of Georgiadou's rivals and also other notable fencers from other weapons commented on the posts, and many people are saying FIE should give her a wildcard, and that the system is unfair, and I approximately half of these people asking for wildcards are not even Greeks, so it's not just the case of "biased fans"

Our top two fencers are in the top 5 but our third girl is ranked 147 and then after that our next girl is 227. We are not a big fencing country, so it's actually a miracle that we have two girls somehow in the top 5. We have Kontochristopoulou in the women's foil ranked 86. No one else in any weapon or gender is top 100 (special shout out though to 18 yo Garyfallou who is ranked 102 in the women's foil ). The sport has grown since 2004 slowly I guess. I mean, I don't personally know anyone who has ever competed in fencing even at an amateur/recreational level unlike other sports, so I can't speak much about it, but since 2004 we had Vougiouka, Gkountoura, and Georgiadou all very successful, so the federation must be doing something right because for decades we won no medals and rarely qualified any fencers to the Olympics. As @phelps said, it is very hard to qualify as a European team. Our team made a serious effort the last few years and are ranked 12th which is much better than they were before this Olympic cycle but still they are very far from the top 5/6, and let's not forget this is without Russia who won gold at in Tokyo in the team event! Georgiadou seems like she will stay on until Los Angeles at least, she will be 37 yo. Gkountoura will be 31 so it's not a problem for her. The issue is finding a third fencer, though 15 yo Kourousi and 21 yo Mavrikaki have had some promising results (especially Kourousi for her age) so hopefully we can get a "decent" third sabre fencer and make a push to qualify for Los Angeles. I was saying for the past few years we should try to bring Vougiouka out of retirement, she was top 5 or so for some years and retired after Rio at 30 yo which is not that old in fencing, but it obviously never happened for Tokyo or Paris so I can't see it happening for Los Angeles, the more that time passes the less likely a comeback will be...